HOBE SOUND, Fla., Dec. 9, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — In November and December of this year, Americans for Responsible Advertising Inc. (AFRA) recorded and analyzed the telecasts of three college football games – the Michigan State v. Ohio State game which was played on November 8 and telecast by ABC, the Alabama v. Auburn game played on November 29 and telecast by ESPN, and the Arizona v. Oregon game played on December 5 and telecast by Fox Sports.
College football games are played in four quarters of 15 minutes each, 60 minutes in total. And yet, the three telecasts lasted for 226 minutes, 225 minutes, and 244 minutes respectively. Thus, the three telecasts (measured from the beginning of the telecasts to the ends of the games) lasted an average of 231 minutes, i.e., 3 hours and 51 minutes. By way of comparison, a 90-minute soccer game broadcast on a commercial channel in England takes two hours or less. There is no doubt that college football telecasts are getting longer. This has been confirmed by AFRA's own research as well as CBS Sports.
One of the reasons today's telecasts are longer than they used to be is that they contain so many commercials. In the Michigan State v. Ohio State game there were 134 commercials, which, in the aggregate, accounted for 26% of the telecast. For the Alabama v. Auburn telecast, the numbers were 156 commercials and 25% of the telecast, and for the Arizona v. Oregon it was 168 commercials and 30% of the telecast. (Note: according to Wikipedia, an hour-long television broadcast in the 1960s would contain 9 minutes – 15% – of advertising.) Most of the commercials in the three college football telecasts were in full-screen, 30-second formats and sponsored by car companies, fast-food restaurants, brewers, and soft-drink companies. There were also lots of shorter, partial-screen, B2YB (Brought to You By) commercials when the telecasts returned from commercial breaks to live action. Finally, the Alabama v. Auburn telecast included what may have been the first nearly subliminal, one-second commercial (Vistaprint). To the networks' credit they never interrupted play to show full-screen commercials.
December 8, 2014. PO Box 1921 Hobe Sound, Florida; AFRA media contact: John Sullivan, 231-392-3882, Email.